Originally Posted by
Duke777
I've managed to only redeem saver. I refuse to use miles otherwise. On DL, I used the last if miles for two J on AF. UA is definite better than DL and easier to use. Increase in partner awards is a huge negative for UA though.
DL is overall more difficult, but there are some sweet spots.
VA to Australia
TN to Tahiti
KE to Sao Paulo
G3 (GOL) within Brazil
AF from the East Coast
SU
AM
DL longhaul metal from their hubs at times
AS
The above are usually pretty reasonable, but it takes work to find them and some agent prodding to make it happen, especially if you're mixing/matching carriers. The challenge is getting to the gateway on DL metal. If you're a short DL flight away, it's usually somewhat reasonable (e.g., WAS-NYC or SFO-LAX). But if you need SFO-JFK or LAX-JFK in J to pick up a flight forget about it.
The problem with DL is the DL metal itself. Even on my recent Brazil trip (SFO-LAX-GRU, GRU-IGU, IGU-GRU-LAX-SFO), I had great flights on KE LAX-GRU-LAX in J and G3 GRU-IGU-GRU (G3 is Y only), I had a good LAX-SFO in F, but had to settle for SFO-LAX in Y, even as DL Platinum. They never released a single F seat as low. I got the upgrade at 5-days out as Plat, and laughed as we pushed back with empties in F.
Anybody here who came from CO on the SkyTeam side should know the drill.
